I’ve been experiencing quite the ebb and flow of emotions lately related to day to day practices. Recently I took on a responsibility that is way above my means to accomplish it due to the nature of not having any experience inside this particular area on a “professional” level I guess you could say. Though it only takes 3-5 hours per week to operate without it completely being unbearable, I have had to consider everything else I do in a weeks time as well as the things I do not get around to doing. All of this to say a simple truth that we are likely to forget as we pursue tasks or goals or whatever else you may label the experiences you choose to chase after with diligence and still maintain a sanity about you that can keep you grounded: Life is short.
The vapor that is this life cannot be stolen from you because it does not belong to you in the first place. This seemingly short existence is simply made up of the very things you choose to allow yourself to experience, including the consequences or benefits of those choices, and nothing less. Minute by minute doesn’t seem like a long time, and in fact, you could be someone who is constantly living by a clock to tell you what you need to do in X amount of minutes, but what you choose to do with those minutes add up to a lifetime before you know it. This is not the direct context of 1 Peter 5:8, but because the applications of The Word are inexhaustible, we can travel down this path safely and make some sound judgements and changes in our lives in order to make the most of what we got by giving The Lord glory through our lives.
1 Peter 5:8 is a familiar passage and states a very strong message that should be read as a warning of something that is constantly happening that we need to keep in the frame at all times. “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” I’m going to do my best not to exposit the text into a dissertation, but I do want to make a few points that will allow us to be more attentive to how naive we are about our time and how quickly it can get away from us. This post will deal directly with being sober-minded and how we neglect being sober in one particular area of our lives often.
The Stamp of Approval
Most of the time when we think of being sober-minded, we immediately run to consumption of a substance that would cause our minds to become a little less sharp. Whether its alcohol, abuse of prescription medication, or whatever else you can come up with that would cause you to “escape” reality, our minds often instantly go to those things that have addictive qualities about them that would keep us from being sober-minded. The question I am here to pose is: What about the addiction of saying, “yes?” What do I mean by that? I am talking about stuffing your days so full of activities by agreeing to do something that spreads you thinner and thinner until the layer is spread so thin that it is no longer a benefit to you or anyone else. How does this relate to having sobriety of the mind? When you are so drunk on the feeling of being needed or the desire to please people, you will do anything for their approval. The problem is that the likelihood of ever meeting their expectations has an incredibly low success percentage. Why is that you ask? I’m no professional, but I’m convinced that its because people in general believe, though they won’t come right out and admit it, that they are the standard in their sphere of influence and anyone who is in the sphere and not doing everything just like them, well, then they aren’t meeting the criteria to be given the stamp of approval. I know this to be true just by first hand expereince. No one believes they are in the wrong when they do certain things. Thats why they do them. If they don’t believe they are doing anything wrong, and someone tells them they are doing something wrong, its most likely met with a “well, who are they to tell me I’m wrong?” Even in solid Christian circles, people refuse to believe they are wrong and it takes some pretty heavy convincing by several people they intimately trust to help them see the errors in their ways. But what about the flip side? If someone has this unspoken belief in themselves as the standard of what a person should be and someone in that sphere is succeeding at something, that person’s initial reaction is likely not supportive or maybe even worse than that with an array negative comments. This is only a surface level explanation on gaining the approval of other people to prove that we do not have time to be fixated on being sure that we are satisfying other people in our life. Furthermore, it helps us to understand that there is nothing we can do to fix the pride of a person who refuses to see how they are contributing to problems if they aren’t willing to see where they can take ownership in those issues.
How do we sober up?
People pleasing or gaining the approval of others is easier if you’re a celebrity or someone who has a large following because in our social media driven world there’s a validation that comes with massive followers. A blue check mark seems to be a symbol that says, “you should trust me” without actually living life with someone, and seems to gain more support than actually giving your time and efforts to someone who is not one of your closest friends no matter how much of your life you have given them to prove you care for them. This is a call for you to make a list of things you are involved in. This is a call to look at that list and ask yourself, “Why do I do this and at the end of this life will it be something I did because I felt like I had to or is it something I did because it gave me joy?” Joy is not something self manufactured, it is a gift from The Lord. The key to sobering up with regard to our time is to walk away, even if only for a season, from the tasks or responsibilities that have become a burden. I don’t mean quit your job and things like that because that will only create more problems. I do mean the extra roles you may carry that aren’t necessary for being the person God has called you to be.
Knowing My Why
I do a podcast because I genuinely feel like I was meant to do it. The Lord blesses me through it by allowing me to join people together and to talk with a brother about the things we love. There’s an added bonus of being discipled when the mics are not recording that have helped me walk through life a little more at peace as well. I do this blog because it helps me flesh out my thoughts and allows me to empty my brain. I have a self-diagnoses of ADHD and anxiety that requires me to write things down in order to feel relief. This helps me process what I am going through. These are just two examples of why I do the things that I do and I do them because I want to and not because people are complimenting me on how wonderful I am at them. For context, my last blog post has been up for two weeks and has 7 views. The point I’m making is that being sober when it comes to how you use your time is incredibly important. You were made for a purpose and that purpose is not to try and win the affections of others, it is to glorify God and to do the things that He has commissioned you to do that give you joy. There is no greater joy than to be the person He has created you to be, and there is no pain like forcing yourself like a contortionist to be someone others want you to be. There are too many people that are incredibly different to be a replica of each and every one of them all in one body. Be you. Be who God created you to be.
Next time we will deal with the next part of verse when it says your enemy is like a roaring lion and make the correlation between a loud predator and how you use your time. Until then, remember that The Lord is your time keeper as well as your creator. You have been fearfully and wonderfully made in His image, and no one else. Let go of the things that are burdensome to you and find rest in Him because, even with your time and responsibilities, His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
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